Adding my Dream Game Mechanic & Expanding the World // DEVLOG #6

Want to skip the Q&A? Jump to 8:26 -- In my favourite Devlog to date we answer some of your burning questions from the first 5 devlogs and then begin blockout out the semi-open world of Planet 1… but I get a little sidetracked by revealing and implementing a mystery movement mechanic which has been visible in every Devlog so far and no one has guessed it!
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Follow the progress on the game more closely on Twitter: / firedragon04
#gamedevelopment #devlog #gamedev #unrealengine #unrealengine5 #ue5 #blender #blender3d
🔖 Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
01:00 - Answering some questions
01:20 - Q1: Using Four arms
04:27 - Q2: Animations
07:05 - Q&A Wrapup
08:26 - Main Devlog begins: Blocking out
09:37 - Showcasing the initial Block out
16:05 - Revealing the next big movement mechanic
17:30 - Showcasing the Alien Ruins ingame
19:12 - Implementing the new movement mechanic
20:20 - Showcasing the new movement mechanic
25:20 - Returning to working on the Block out
27:12 - Showcasing the early work on the crash site area
31:26 - Outro

[@Aquabrandon44]

this is honestly my favorite devlog series I've actually ever seen! you don't skip over content other devs might find boring to watch and skip on their logs, and that actually helps me understand what I'll be needing to learn down the line! thank you for the amazing content!

[@firedragon04]

Thanks so much. I'm really trying to make these Devlogs feel episodic and in-depth. I watch a lot of Devlog series too and I often feel like I've missed a bunch of the development or I'm waiting months to get an update from them. Sometimes my devlogs may seem smaller in scale in terms of progress made but I am trying my hardest to put them out weekly and have interesting content for everyone every week.

[@PhilipPetrunak]

Since you're bringing up the topic of your second pair of arms, I thought I might mention something. You view it as pair of arms, but in the mecha community there are a lot of machine designs that incorporate a second pair of arms often called "sub arms". They're actually quite common. Unlike the design you have, sub arms are rarely a copy, just smaller, of the main arms. They're usually much smaller and fold away. Provides a more humanoid character silhouette, making poses easier-to-read. Utility wise they can do a lot of things. For example if a character is holding off an enemy with their main arms, they can attack with the small arms. Do things like toss grenades without needing to put away their primary weapon. Add additional support for heavier guns. Hold a shield. Stretch out and seize anytime enemy weapons. A good example is here. Short but worth checking out: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bIKloap4mrKEpdE

[@DavidiiXV]

Boosting should keep you hovering on the water's surface. Then you could create some really cool areas where you have to traverse a water area with the boost and reach solid ground before running out of boost, lest you have to swim back and try again.

[@firedragon04]

This is PERFECT! How did I not think of this 🤣 I'm going to revisit the Swimming implementation soon because I really don't like it and it can be quite buggy. So when I do that I'll add a check to see if the character is boosting and if they are they won't enter a swimming state, instead they'll boost over it. I want to add small dust/dirt/smoke particles under the players feel (that trail behind) as you boost too so I could do something similar on the water with steam/mist coming up as you move across the water.

[@DavidiiXV]

@@firedragon04 would love to see it in the next devlog! Have fun playing Jedi Survivor.

[@firedragon04]

@@DavidiiXV I'm not sure when I'll revisit swimming maybe Devlog 8 or 9. We shall see. Devlog 7 (next week) is about implementing another cool movement mechanic that goes amazingly with boosting and then we add our first enemy/creature to the game. I'm actually playing Jedi Survivor right now - it's giving me a lot of inspiration actually... just it's performance isn't very inspiring.

[@mmmmmmmmmmm10]

​@@firedragon04 it's a double jump with the 2nd jump being a boost isn't it? Love the boost, the game is looking fantastic.

[@coolguy-xb2yn]

everything looks great so far. i think it's important that freeclimbing is fast and doesn't hamper exploration. my main issue with games like botw and genshin is how tedious the climbing is due to slow climb speed. your 4-armed character (plus jet boots) should climb at a good speed. lots of upgrade options too for that. i do have a tutorial request if you have the time: i'd like to see the process of blocking out levels in blender. i never see any tutorials on this that are actually helpful.

[@firedragon04]

I'm playing Jedi Survivor at the moment and you actually climb at a really good speed in it. I've always known I'd increase the climbing speed in my game, I'll likely do that soon but the animations probably won't match as in the future I plan on making new animations that use all 6 limbs of the character in tandem to move/clamber up surfaces faster - almost in a spider-like way. I definitely agree though, climbing should feel good and shouldn't feel cumbersome.

[@robinHobin]

This game is looking better and better every devlog

[@hawshimagical]

jet force gimini HD game dev guy uploaded. today is a good day.

[@GrahamOfLegend]

Yooo the jet boots add so many new possibilities for both traversal as well as combat! Side and back dodges, double jumps, so much potential!

[@venizz5112]

Another Deblov for Spsce64 uploaded right as I got off my work shift. Let's go!!!!!!

[@firedragon04]

This is my favourite Devlog so far, I hope you all enjoy it too! If you want to skip past the Q&A section (which has some really cool moments, so I recommend watching) then you can skip to 8:26 ▶ New Devlogs every Friday! Hope you all like like the progress with the first Planet's environment and seeing me finally implementing something that has been in front of you all since the first Devlog.

[@-C69-]

Suggestion for the new area you just made... Include waterfalls that are flowing into the pit cascading off the rocks. That area reminds me of Star Wars when Luke crash lands in the water on the Dagoba system with Yoda

[@ibearo8500]

I can already see the possibilities! Just zooming around the map, boosting into a jump pad to gain speed and going over ramps to cross chasms ~ It's sounding super fun. I wonder, are you thinking about adding verticality to the boost ? Like a double jump or high jump? Or imagine a vine wall with a gap between vines, so you have to do a boost jump to reach the next part. Whatever you choose to do, I can't wait to see the stuff you come up with 🙌

[@dasham1995]

Nice work! Really digging this more art-focused devlog, Would love to see more of this style!

[@idc2120]

2 suggestions. The first about the 4 arms. I think people were asking if there was any gameplay that would utilise the character's 4 arms, creating a unique hook for the game. I suggest that each of the arms can be equipped with different weapons or equipment. Much like in Nier Automata where you can attack with a melee weapon and shoot the pod at the same time. So the player could have a gun in one hand and a sword in the other, or a sword in both - which change the attack types. Obviously controlling 4 arms would be difficult, so just limit it to 2 arms that require button inputs if the weapon types are different or sword and shield etc. The other two arms could be passives that do things automatically. Eitherway the player can mix and match what is equipped. The second suggestions is more of an observation. Have you played OoT, MM and Wind Waker recently? You may noticed that Link doesn't orbit around his target when pressing left or right while Z Targeting. His movement is always parallel to the camera and so doesn't rotate around the target. The camera tries its best to look at your target and stay over Link's shoulder, this results in the change in direction of movement instead. Its important that the controls always accomodate the intent of the player. I believe this is also how it works in Dark Souls too, which borrows heavily from the 3D Zelda games. I've not seen an action game of this type actually perform an orbit when strafing left/right.

[@firedragon04]

Thanks for the suggestions, great ideas and insight. I'm not super keen on the player having different weapons per arm personally, and instead was looking at gadgets and tools to be utilised by those other arms... but I'm also not married to the idea of the sword/shield combo either, these are things I will definitely explore, test and expand upon as development continues. And yeah I did notice that in OoT (for example) you always move parallel to the camera, this is actually how it works in my game currently when you're not locked on to an enemy but you hold left trigger (my z-target equivalent) you strafe parallel to the camera. I could quite easily disable the player rotating towards or restrict the movement of the lock on to only be parallel to the camera so forward/back and left/right rather than orienting and orbiting the enemy. This isn't a priority change/tweak to test but I'll add it to the list of things for the future when I revisit the finer details of combat more. Thanks :)

[@firedragon04]

I’m working on Devlog 8 at the moment and implementing some of your great comments and ideas from this video into the game. Devlog 7 will be out this Friday (5th) while I’m watching Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and then the following Friday (12th) is Zelda Day! Hopefully I’ll get a headstart on Devlog 9 or else things might be delayed after Devlog 8 because of Tears of the Kingdom.

[@firedragon04]

For those wondering… Devlog 7 is adding another new mechanic, talking about early HUD ideas and then getting our first creature in the game. Devlog 8 will be about improving player experience and polishing a few features before we import our second creature in the game. Hope you’re all excited for those! I can’t believe we’re getting close to 10 weeks of Devlogs already.

[@yaldabaoth7603]

I just had a thought seeing the door of the dungeon, what if there was a visual indicator on the door itself on how many shards were needed still. Like maybe the runes around the door light up with each collected shard and when they are all lit up, that can act as a visible sign that enough shards have been collected and the door is unlocked or something along those lines. Could even use some visual storytelling there where there’s a shard right in front of the door placed in such a way that the player sees one of the runes light up when collected.

[@RebelPaws]

It'd be cool if the boost by sword hits did less damage due to it being non-precise of a hit. But maybe knocks down or knocks back enemies. Maybe make the hitbox last a little longer so you can swing through a couple enemies. Could be a cool way to slide into a fight with an advantage. Absolutely love this series! Not to put anyone down but a lot of indie games lately are one of few genres or styles. Or the devlogs are one of few styles from popular creators. But the moments you geek out over some of the stuff is the best! I love geeking out over everything in games I'm working on or am just playing; it's always great to see passion present :)

[@javierdurini]

I think the pace at which things are going is great, thanks for being so consistent with these devlogs

[@Paul_Ward]

The instant I saw your character holding the staves I had the idea of a mechanic that you could use those extra arms to throw them into walls and clamber them to access areas previously off limits. Additionally this could make them limited time use as you may choose not to give them back to the player until you choose to add another stave sonewhere else. Edit: if it was me, I would have set locations with i.e. a hole texture indicating where this can be done so the stave isn't wasted on a bad throw

[@Ironwolf099]

Love the series. I also wanna say that I personally really like the look of the 2 shields. It makes me think of a mini one person phalanx. Using and stacking shields for more coverage. I just think it's neat.

[@onlysmiles4949]

2:15 "Hello there, General Kenobi" Also, with regards to the "no boost" areas, I think there should probably be some sort of visual indicator for these zones, or very consistent regions where they're present

[@firedragon04]

* *Grievous cough sounds* *

[@FunnyGuyTimmy]

I think letting fans and subscribers submit art for enemy concepts would be a cool idea.

[@firedragon04]

More than happy for people to do fan art or fan anything tbh and send it in, either of what I've made so far or of ideas/designs they'd like and if I end up liking them/using them, I'd make sure they appeared in the credits.

[@ahmedabuharthieh579]

It’s nice to hear your mindset of how animations, designs, features, etc. change during the design process. Thinking this way gives you much more license to move forward and develop things rather than get stuck on each individual feature.

[@OneSmallSpider]

You should add a handful of special shards on each level, that are only accessible with traversal mechanics you unlock later in the game. Have all of the special shards from every planet contribute to unlocking a final secret dungeon. This is my suggestion, I adore what you're doing.

[@firedragon04]

Good idea, I'm not certain I'll allow players back to previous planets as there's fairly large story implications that progress you to the next after every dungeon but I will consider some sort of backtracking ability in the future.

[@robinHobin]

The jet boots are crazy, I don’t know how they weren’t ever noticed

[@firedragon04]

Thanks, yeah they've been there on the character model since the first Devlog. You can see them quite clearly throughout the series too but no one ever noticed them. So glad I was able to finally get around to implementing them this time.

[@minilabyrinth]

As someone who has learned this lesson 3x over, don't be afraid to slightly scale down your blockout map size, even with your new rocket boots. I don't know if it's just a problem I have but I always seem to make things larger than they should be because I have this grand sense of wanting to show epic scale from games like Destiny and Halo, when it ends up not serving gameplay that well as you are actually walking through it

[@MrMyers758]

Quick aesthetic suggestion on the arm cannon. It might seem more powerful if only the lower right arm was inside the gun, and the upper right arm was also used for stabilisation. Like you could have the upper right hand pressing the right side of the gun (on the edge), and the left hands pressing on the top left and bottom left faces of the gun (so it is being pressed equally on 3 sides towards the centre of the gun, as if it requires stabilisation from every angle so it doesn't kick sideways or something). Just a suggestion of course!

[@jinenjipeke]

i have two ideas for the 4 arms thing 1 the bigger arms are for fighting, one uses the shield and the other the sword, and the smaller arms are to carry object wile fighting. 2 if you have the smaller arms free you can use a polearm on the right side and a bigger shield on the left side. this way when the shield is small you can use it for parry or something like this. if it was my game i would equip every single arm with something different, like an rpg, an making combination change how the combat system works, but even i can see that it would be super complicated, expecially for a solo developer. also about the boost i think adding a small burst of speed at the beginning, with the direction based on wasd movement, just like bomb rush cyberfunk, could be the solution for mid air control and giving it a more platform use all these feedback are a way for thanking your for these devlogs that are incredible to look at, very inspiring and fun too i cant wait to see more of them, you are doing a great job

[@adamcampbell9806]

I've been binging all these devlogs and every time I see the character move I think, "Damn, those are some good animations"

[@firedragon04]

That's very kind of you, all the animations are temporary too, I plan on adding a lot more character to them.

[@ProfessorBinks]

i immediately noticed the leg thrusters when you showed the character model, was really hoping you'd end up actually using them. very nice

[@user-ik8vy1rg8f]

During the final stages, it would be nice to see the animations really fine tuned. Good animation really sets an IP apart from its competitors, especially on these older consoles. Jak and Daxter comes to mind, though it is a generation later.

[@firedragon04]

Absolutely, animations are going to be a key part of the game's polishing phase and will add a lot.

[@sirwhatnot5899]

I think there's something to note about sword swinging animation. When using a sword, the actual arm isn't where the majority of movement should be coming from. Primarily, the strength of the swing comes from the movement of the lower body, and the dexterity of the swing comes from the wrist. Note that in Twilight Princess, Link's entire body moves when he swings his sword while moving. His lower torso pivots to give strength, and his shield arm counter-rotates to keep his balance.

[@firedragon04]

All animations in the game at the moment are temporary but I do feel like in TP Link is swinging with his arm a lot while moving and then his whole body when standing still. Not 100% those statements exactly but close to them. Currently in my game I just have it so the attack animation is only affecting the bones from the upper right arm’s shoulder which is why nothing else is being triggered, this mostly means it works sort of okay for swinging the sword when moving currently, it’s not perfect but as a temporary animation to get the point across - it works. While this doesn’t work when standing still at all, it feels strange and you would never just stand almost perfectly still and just wave your arm around to attack, there needs to be more weight, a posture chance and a lunge taken into account with every swing for attacks when standing still… so I will implement a system that allows for different attack animations to play depending on the player state.

[@sirwhatnot5899]

@@firedragon04 Ah that makes sense.

[@brian_mayberry]

On attacking while in boost, I have two thoughts. If you've got the sword out it lets you do a trusting-pierce attack, and if you have the shield out it does a bash. Both should drain the energy much more quickly and vastly reduce turning speed. These could be the only way to damage or expose a weak spot for certain creatures or structures.

[@raffaeleparise6321]

The jet boots look like so much fun! Since they're a core ability of the character's arsenal, why not swap the dodge rull for a short but powerful directional boost? It could have an energy cost so the player doesn't spam it during combat.

[@sotrh7974]

One way that you could do with the multiple arms is have a membrane appear between them so you could glide a bit. Boosting into a glide would be fun.

[@NaughtyKlaus]

I would recommend making the jet boots have a very short stamina bar, and maybe disable gravity while jet boot mode is active. This might enable you to create some interesting puzzles without letting the player just glide over every body of water, bypassing the normal means of crossing.

[@firedragon04]

I think I’ll tweak the gravity more with the jet boots but not off entirely, I have already implemented that you can boost over water though and that works great. The energy bar will be used by other things and I want the player to be able to boost for a good amount of time in the big open area, so I’m actually looking into more ways the layer can regenerate energy while on the move. Then limiting access to boosting in the smaller areas/zones so that they can play more like traditional levels where you need to walk around.

[@MasterDisaster64]

Really inspirational stuff, man. Have you considered letting the player actively maintain their boost meter in some way? Like doing tricks in the air or something. That could add some fun depth to traversal.

[@firedragon04]

Ooooh tricks... that's an interesting idea. I talk about it in next week's Devlog but there will be energy canisters/charges that will be around the world that as you pick up replenish your energy on the go meaning you'd be able to boost for longer but pressing B or something while boosting+in the air to perform a spin or roll in mid air (a trick) which also replenishes some energy through kinetic movement sounds like a really great idea.

[@swarthygiant1463]

looking good those were some very sneaky boots lol

[@zachnewby4739]

This series is really inspiring. I have decided to learn Godot and Blender in part because of this series.

[@greenin5537]

Maybe each arm can be an equipped item slot, like in OoT you used the C pad. You go to your inventory to assign different weapons to each arm, and you can see them on the arm you equipped them. Then, either you have one button for each arm to activate/use or a button that changes the "current arm" to use, or another better way haha. Some items can require more than 1 arm/slot, like that handcannon that requires all four arms, or the spears that use 2 arms. This way you can do different combinations, the number or which depends on how many weapons there are. If this was an RPG it would be cool if you get to "lvl up" each arm stat/perks, with one arm you can wield swords better, and you improve another arm to have a better shooting skill, and if you leave an arm empty of the same side of your pistol arm, you can reload faster.

[@MajatekYT]

Nice nice! I'm liking the concept of bits-n-pieces gradually upgrading the alien dude. As for the shards, I'd try avoiding text boxes if the idea of "x amount of shards" can be communicated by having holes/slots in the door for shards to be inserted - but that's just me and my preference for minimal dialogue. It is still ultimately your game. Hopefully everyone replying are respecting that it's your project and that you're not feeling pressured by anything!

[@firedragon04]

I have fairly lofty goals with the story so there will need to be a fair amount of text as I'm not planning voice acting. It's a game about mystery, exploration, loneliness, destruction and at its core it's you versus a much larger, powerful enemy who threatens your entire race - and I haven't even introduced who they are in the devlogs yet. Back to your point though, I don't want constant dialogue boxes reminding you about the shards, just maybe a small UI piece and that's it. Once you reach the dungeon door, there will be a prompt but that's the only place I want a permanent prompt for accessibility reasons.

[@TheDrover15]

Speaking of Jedi Survivor, I feel like your jet boots should be broken at the start and you could find the part to fix them in a different subsection, and then return to your crashed pod to fix them, or find a work bench in the wild, like in Jedi Fallen Order when Call fixes his bot on the first planet.

[@firedragon04]

Yeah it’s not a bad idea, I’ve thought about that. I want to restrict the use of the jet boots in all the sub zones of the planet but allow full use of them in the larger open central area so I need a long term lore reason why they don’t work in those sections. I was thinking something like solar connection but that would mess up plans for my ideas for the third planet. I also thought about the boots just needing a large open space to engage and smaller more cramped areas don’t allow for them to turn on. But still not the greatest story/lore reason.

[@ariewylie9916]

This looks awesome, I'd Wishlist from this alone.

[@dansanga]

This is a great entry into the devlog series. The boost mechanic looks like a lot of fun and will surely open the door to awesome traversal and exploration in the game. Great to see that you can pick the things that excite you to work on next and have fun implementing cool new things every time.

[@sleepynuigurumiamalgamation]

Recognizing the rain world music XD. Good tastes. I cant think of a very clean eay to have your boost but I can reccomend game that has amazing use of momentum & feel is "Sulfur Nimbus Hel's Elixer". . Another great game for some possible refrence is Pseudoregalia. Its a 3d metroidvania platformer game in a "quite partially" similiar style thats a few hours long. May be some good inspiration.

[@cinebst]

looking great!!

[@BlazeHeartPanther]

The rocket shoes he has reminds me of that Toy Story 2 ability where Buzz gets rocket shoes to propel him for a few seconds when you make contact with them.

[@shibii]

Your game reminds me of PSO, you could find some inspiration there for animations and attack patterns. Really nice overall so far! I’m new to your channel and I’ll make sure to catch up on other videos! I am myself in the process of finding my art style and try to make it so I can start my own project 😊

[@takaw.d8486]

I havent started trying to make my dream game yet, i cant seem to get to it, this has given me SO much inspo!! For the 4 arms, Perhaps make a set of animation attacks?? that way it gives the Character a backstory and a sense of Class? sorta like his own style. your game looks amazing man and i hope you keep it up with the awesome work

[@silverwulf8640]

The hover boots are really cool. Some suggestions for it are making it that if you are in combat you cant use it to prevent it from being to powerful. Maybe you can get an upgrade in the future that replaces your roll with a hover boot dash. I know animations are placeholder but I think it could be cool to put some hover tech on his lower arms as well and have him position them forward as if he was using them to balance and steer himself while using them. Also where are you going to sell the game because if you made something like a steam page I would definingly Wishlist this and I think a lot of others would to

[@swisspunker94]

really enjoying this man, love the hover boots!

[@astrangerontheinternet6901]

a few ideas you could do with the 4 Arms is: have weapons require different amounts of arms. You could also make it so each arm could hold a different weapon allowing players to combine multiple weapons for different combinations maybe each arm has a different button for use. You could have a grapple hook in one arm and two swords in another 2 maybe when your boosting and you attack it will do something like a strong dash attack and then shut off the boosters doing this kind of attack could also drain the boosters putting them on Cool down

[@Morraak]

Those jetboots are pretty cool! I'm a very visual person though so I was most excited to see more of the 1st world and the inter connectivity it'll have. Personally looking forward to see what enemies you design! P.S. for those non-boost areas I would recommend only having that be active on the initial time when leaving the crash site, otherwise players might not like it disabling boost when coming back to the site.

[@firedragon04]

You're in luck then, the next 2 Devlogs feature our first 2 creatures for the first planet.

[@Morraak]

@@firedragon04 Woot woot! Happy Day! =D

[@Pichuscute]

Yessss, just got into these a couple days ago and am loving them. Listening to your devlogs while working on my own game. Keep up the hard work and I can't wait to see how this game progresses! Edit: I appreciate that you'll be doing more with the 4 arms in the future as you get to polish a bit. I think people are already thinking of that because of how well done your stuff seems to look already. Take it as a good thing!

[@firedragon04]

Thanks. I plan on expanding so much of what there is currently. My main goal for the Devlogs for the considerable future is mapping out all the features for the game including all the different abilities/weapons you'll unlock while also slowly developing the first planet. Once all of that is done, I'll be able to restrict the character to just its base functions at the start of the game and slowly add all these other cool things to it as you progress through all the planets. I'll also be able to work on the other planets more diligently after spending a long time building out the features of the game on this first one. Things like character models, animations, textures, scenery...etc will change and grow as the game's features do. Right now I'm only getting planet 1 to this early block out stage so I can start working on it with all the features in mind - it would be dumb for me to fully build it out before all the traversal, movement and combat mechanics are implemented so each devlog will take a step closer to that feature completion stage before I then go back on polish everything, including how the main character uses their arms.

[@Pichuscute]

@@firedragon04 I entirely agree. This is 100% the way you should go, focusing on the stuff that matters most first so you waste less time when you inevitably iterate. Keep it up!

[@HatPeasyCat]

This looks so amazing! Can't wait to play this ;p

[@coolguyiscool1234]

LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA ANOTHER DEV LOG

[@markaster7677]

Man, I love binge watching this series. It's so sick! I'm really excited to play when it finally releases (Please don't rush it, I can wait a lot😂)

[@HeroGetsu]

That’s amazing I heard shadow of colossus in the background man that’s legit my favorite game I’m even making a game inspired by it

[@lathliss250]

Hey! Just stating as someone who's considering game dev as a potential field of career choice, seeing your expirience with creating your own game inspires me. Thanks man, looking to see more from you!! Along with best of luck to creating your game, I know you got this!!!

[@mrburninghands5740]

These are the highlight of my weeks. Keep it up man!

[@xei2694]

Devlog 1: "He's not looking for trouble." Devlog 6: "Maybe he just goes all out crazy swordsman and has swords in every single hand... Maybe he's some crazy guy who just does that." No hate btw. I love this. Good luck! Don't fall victim to burnout like I did.

[@firedragon04]

Hahaha I think this just shows how early in development I am and how elements of the game are in flux. The character is a scout so has very little in the realm of actual weaponry on him to begin with as he very rarely would survey planets from their surface only scout out systems but an event happens that sends him on this journey and he is pretty unwilling. But maybe he just goes full on Kratos and decides killing is the only way? 😂

[@filipvasiljevic8837]

Suggestion: Make the fast glide movement mechanic have a roler scating on air animation like from jet set radio, and make every leg thrustuster fire with each leg going back individually

[@jasronus2382]

wow great progress! I love your vision of the game and the scale of it! Looking forward to seeing it all finished and full of life! In your Q&A section you mentioned concerns about the four arms and the fact that you will be experimentin with different ways of implementing it into the game, and that discussion sparked an idea! What if, when you are climbing, you can stop mid climb and use items and tools with your extra arms(while one pair of arms holds on to the wall/vines) this could lead to some cool puzzles and interesting gameplay where you maybe need to climb up and swing at something in the air, or maybe aim a grapplinghook from a higher vantage point in order to thwip over to that point. Maybe you could even catch onto walls whilst swinging between them in order to parkour over dangerous areas, floor-is-lava-style! Just a thought! But anyway this looks great! Looking forward to the next devlog!

[@jacobcharleszimmerman7934]

Your semi-open-world game flow reminds of an old action RPG for the NES called Crystalis. In the game you progressed from one area to the next. Every area was like a mini open world. Each being bigger and more complex than the last. But being an RPG, each area had a town and NPCs with quests and such. Which made me wonder, will your game have NPCs?

[@firedragon04]

It won’t have any NPCs at all, one of the core motifs of the game is loneliness along with the unknown. All 4 planets you visit have had some sort of ecological disaster triggered on them - this first planet was once an ocean world teeming with life, blue oceans as far as the eye could see. But now there’s hardly any water left and the area you play in is on the dried seabed of these once great oceans. You learn why this happened and how, through lore you can discover/collect in the world and also observational storytelling but in the dungeon you’ll find out why more explicitly.

[@BackwardLaser]

The extra keys to unlock the dungeon could be used to increase your energy meter.

[@jzeltman]

I hope you keep the rolling, could be useful while fighting and provides diversity of movement/traversal. Would also be cool if you could upgrade the jetboots to fly vertically, maybe full ironman and have it on the back/hands for greater control too really impressive work so far.

[@videorowtv5198]

Hey, umm me again lol. Just finished watching the devlog :) The boosting mechanic looks great! If you want to discourage people from using it as a dodge you could make the boost require a run-up to get enough speed for lift off. Also I think retractible little energy wings from his forearms would look really cool. Anyways I think I got way too invested in this game / devlog series lol. Can't wait to see another devlog

[@firedragon04]

Appreciate it! I think limiting the boost to working only after it has seen you be at full running speed for 1 second or something is a great idea and really easy to implement - just add a check if the player is at max walk speed, then if yes, check if it has been at max walk speed for over 1 second, and if yes the player can then boost. Timings...etc I can tweak but that's a great and simple idea. I could also add that if the player is in combat it needs a longer time of the player moving/not attacking if an enemy can see them - but that could get annoying. The main thing I'm going to have to think about and balance is how much I want the player to be slowed down by enemies when they're boosting and if they get spotted. I probably don't want them to get stopped, or slowed at all.

[@videorowtv5198]

@@firedragon04 Thanks, and yeah I totally agree. I think slowing down every time you get spotted could get a bit annoying but it would make you be more cautious of the enemies so it really depends on the play style / game feel to be.

[@VelvetAura]

I love the boost! Would it be possible to incorporate the energy meter at the top left into the character model with this artstyle (maybe a gauge could be visible or lit up somewhere on his back)? Either way, I'm curious to see how that ends up looking later on! As for the roll, you could potentially add some level design that compliments the ability to roll. Maybe for small gaps that you can only squeeze your way under, like some tree roots or a hidden crawlspace or something! Plus, I'm sure rolling could still be useful for clearing some jumps.

[@firedragon04]

Thanks! Yeah I'm in the early concepting phase for the HUD at the moment, and I do think having a shape which decreases behind the player, ala BoTW stamina wheel, would help communicate that energy meter better to players than it just being in the upper left corner.

[@VelvetAura]

@@firedragon04 I hadn't thought about how convenient it is to have an energy meter like that next to or on your character before. Now that I do though, it really does feel more natural than glancing up at a meter somewhere else on screen whenever you're expending that resource.

[@AliElZoheiry]

Really good stuff man, love your excitement about the jet pack, I would be excited about that too 🎉

[@videorowtv5198]

Hi, great devlog as always, love the progress! Also, could you make like rope climbin/tree branch climbing mechanic in which you use the upper two arms but can still fight enemies with the lower two arms? I think that would be pretty cool

[@firedragon04]

I'm not sure how I'd make the physics of swingable vines/ropes work but I do like the idea of attacking while climbing - this would mean players could swing the sword with one arm as they hold on with the others. This could mean creatures like spiders or other things could attack you when climbing and you could attack them without the worry of falling.

[@venny1689]

I'd say keep the attacking / sheathing when boosting. Looks fun. Depending on how you want to balance the boost and rolling you might need to limit its usage indoors, like dungeons for example.

[@firedragon04]

Yeah I add that box near the end of the Devlog which restricts all boosting within it - I think what I'll do is use that for dungeons and also probably the smaller sub-zones of the planet and keep this boost mechanic as an "overworld movement mechanic" it means then you get the best of both worlds when exploring - a fast mechanic to get around the open zone then a more considered approach in the smaller areas like caves and such.

[@ShyGuyShane]

@FireDragon04 I don't know if you plan to have any enemies in the "open" zone or not but if you do it would be cool if when you try to attack while boosting it takes a small hit at the boost stamina bar.

[@firedragon04]

@@ShyGuyShane I do plan on having enemies there yeah, both docile wildlife and more aggressive wildlife will be found there. I have lots of cool ideas for what they'll do and look like too. Having a cost to attack if you're boosting seems like a really great balance actually and a risk/reward for the 'drive-by approach' to combat.

[@ack5593]

Just a small thing I thought of but when you were showing off the alien ruins and said a UI prompt would pop up telling the player to gather the number of shards I was thinking maybe the player might not be able to read and understand the alien language or technology just yet. If there was a translation system/device on the player wrist you could maybe get the player to do something to sync to the alien technology. Or maybe the shards are the materials needed to sync for that particular location. I'm not sure just brainstorming xd

[@morgan0]

the overgrown dungeon area made me think it would be cool to have some decision you can make to either repair some part of an overgrown area, which then gives you something that lets you progress, or you blast off in a rocket which burns all the vegetation which was holding the ruins in place and they collapse. random idea tho so no clue if it would work with your storyline

[@morgan0]

i guess part of what inspired that is it’s ruins, it’s an underwater area which looks recently drained, it falling apart and crumbling feels like it fits, and so either you take some small action against that and restore an area or contribute to it

[@RafaMartinelli]

Looking beautiful man! Keep at it!

[@AthesielIcosiel]

Thinking a neat n easy way to make the ruins even more eye-catching from the distance would be if one of the sections of it (maybe the second-to-last cube from the top?) slowly rotated.

[@firedragon04]

That's a cool idea. I think more green lines and maybe some sort of light beam would help draw attention to it through the fog too.

[@LadAussie]

New to the vids and yet to watch the back log. Awesome project! Not sure if there was a mapping system, but having somthing, either from the get go or very early on, but a 3d map generator as you go, like sphere. Ends up Metroid prime map looking, but maybe a bit smoother. That way you know know where you have been and might be able to see paths you missed. Maybe markers you can add too so you dont forget things you need to come back too.

[@petersaup]

Those linking areas seem quite abit like the elevators and lifts from the Darksouls series which really made for a large sprawling world which seems like what your going for. Just a thought.

[@sactecnos2708]

Man, your game looks so charming... First of all I would like to apologize for my last comment, I forgot you were building everything up placeholders for now, hope I didnt annoyed you or anything. Anyways, I am not sure if you will find this useful, but I would do like to provide some recommendations: - You should magnify the camera lens while dashing to enchance the feeling of speed and to provide a bigger reaction margin to the player (look at how the camera size is directly proportional to your speed in F-zeroX if you need an example). - Now, regarding that puddle at 28:20. As your intention in this very first part is to introduce the player to the basic mechanics I think you should make the puddle a bit bigger and deeper so the player can swim a bit on it. In addition, as it is not in the middle on the path you could put some kind of item on the water to encourage the player to get into the puddle and also teaching him that there are ítems that can be collected in the process. - Last but not least, I was thinking that in order to take advantage of the dash mechanic perhaps there could be some kind of hologram bridges that only actívate their collision when you pass through them dashing. Something that might give the dash other practical uses. Rather than that I cannot say nothing else but congrat you and hope you the best.

[@firedragon04]

So you think the camera should zoom in/narrow the FOV when boosting? Not zoom out/widen the field of view?

[@sactecnos2708]

​I meant that it should gradually zoom out (perhaps I used the wrong expression, please forgive me, my english is not very good).

[@TheSoulmarine]

Remove hover boost bar in the left corner to free ui and make it simple add it instead to the color of the particles on the jet boots, blue - yellow- red gradient. Blue full, red, empty, or do something similar. Just an idea.

[@firedragon04]

I definitely want an on screen HUD for the game, BUT I do love the idea of the particle colour being tied to the amount of remaining energy you have left. full to 50 remaining = blue. 49-20 remaining = yellow. 19-0 remaining = red. That is a fantastic idea.

[@TheSoulmarine]

@@firedragon04 I'm glad you like it, also on less than 10% jet particles can start throttling to indicate jet charge will be depleated soon. Imo it might look better than a UI bar, player can focus on the character and world and not on the UI.

[@NecronStars]

I have a suggestion, you should do the stamina ui close to the character like in zelda botw and totk, i dont know much how to explain but there is that thing about mantaining the players view most of the time in a confortable place or something like that, and talking about visual identity , for how the looks of the alien are, i think all the ui should be like in a hologram style, it probably be hard but, it would be really original if the ui appeared like in universe, coming from his wrists maybe from one of the smaller hands a hologram projector in his palm :) . Keep up the good work you're really good and seems passionate about your project i like where you're game is going.

[@firedragon04]

I'll talk about UI stuff in this week's devlog. Thanks!

[@MiguelMartinez-vb4ps]

Hi FireDragon04, you can see the 4 arms mechanic in a game called "MDK 2". There is a character like a mutant dog and he equips 4 guns at the same time.

[@MiguelMartinez-vb4ps]

Also General Grievous from Star Wars, he is a 4 sword user.

[@firedragon04]

@@MiguelMartinez-vb4ps Yeah all great examples, but as my game is more about exploration than combat, the main character will likely use those lower arms for gadgets and mobility rather than more swords or guns.

[@MiguelMartinez-vb4ps]

what if, spin attacks changes color depending on sword colors, like a blue(water) and red(fire) sword spin attacks makes purple, so you can destroy a purple shield/armor or something

[@humancollins5626]

Ratchet and Clank hoverboots let's go

[@firedragon04]

Taking my favourite things from lots of different series and mashing them together 😄

[@timmygilbert4102]

As a level designer, I'm bothered that the door (dungeon) is not taught before the keys (the shard), because it break the motivation structure and information flows. You need the shard because of the dungeon, therefore you need to establish the dungeon first to give meaning to the shards.

[@firedragon04]

Yeah I have no idea how to get around this though so it's a tricky one. In Breath of the Wild the "end goal" of Hyrule Castle is pointed out to you straight away and you can go there and beat the game if you're good enough BUT you need the shards in this game to then unlock that. There's no real way to teach this UNLESS I have dialogue/exposition when you collect the first shard saying that they emanate a strong pull to the dungeon and may be the key to getting inside. This does not however teach players what they are if they just skip this. It's definitely something I've thought about a lot and I'm trying to figure out the best way to approach it. Players could go straight to the dungeon and find out they need to go and collect more shards and they may only have 1 at that point... or a player may get there with 20 and realise they only need 15 (15 to open, 30 max on planets). I'm hoping I can come up with a good way to communicate the need for the shards and what they do to the player very early on.

[@timmygilbert4102]

@@firedragon04 that's not a real problem, use the Metroid method, and add smaller door that open with shard to teach the idea. Basically, add a smaller area after the crash, that teach the gameplay like in Zelda kokiris area, gated by a crystal, add visual similarities between keys and door, then have a small linear section that lead to the dungeon reveal, and then to reveal of the big area. Even botw is like that, nested, you wake up in a small area, immediately followed by a small linear bit that teach you some basics, then you get outside and get the big world reveal, and the nested continue, you are lock in small area that is a summary of the bigger one.

[@longdongsilver3267]

There's a game called MDK2 and one of the characters in that game has 4 arms. The game was a 3rd person action shooter, and the 4 armed character could have a different kind of gun in each hand. While MDK2 didn't really make the most of that feature, do you think you'll implement a feature where your character could have 4 different weapons in each arm and be able to make use of all of them at once or something?

[@MrClockworkable]

The boost is a cool feature, but I feel like it should be a mid-game upgrade, like Epona for Link? On one side, it seems like a powerful ability, on the other It seems like something players can and will just spam to move all the time, removing the need for rolling as you said. Maybe if it worked similarly to Epona where its default speed was like a slightly faster sprint and you give it boosts to move a bit quicker, but those boots needed to recharge, especially if you spam them. Either way, getting them right out of the gate feels a little odd to me.

[@firedragon04]

You’ll be limited to only using them in the open area of the planet rather than the smaller subzones, a bit like only using Epona in Hyrule Field. The worlds are (intentionally) huge so I feel like it would be a mistake to not give the player this ability early on.

[@MicahSnobelen]

Maybe if you make it so that you can’t boost during combat kind of like in eldin ring you can’t summon torrent in combat. This could make the player make better decisions whether or not they should start an encounter. All up to you though

[@firedragon04]

Yeah this is a great idea. I just need to figure out two things, 1) how to implement a way for the game to know you're in combat and put you in that state so you can't boost for that duration (I guess it would be triggered by an enemy spotting you/moving to attack you). 2) would this annoy players just wanting to traverse quickly if they suddenly can't boost anymore if an enemy has spotted them and they just want to get away quickly/keep on boosting.

[@user-lu1nx4vz5x]

Hi! First of all, thank you for all your work and devlogs. You're doing a great job which inspires people, myself included. I would like to ask you whether you can give some advice where I could learn about materials and how to apply them to meshes. Cause I've seen some tutorials about making complex materials in Blender which can't be transfered to UE5. It would be great to learn how to make cool textures in Blender and configure them for meshes in UE.

[@RafaMartinelli]

Maybe two hands are for physical/melee and two are for magic/abilities

[@utoherozv]

I wonder if you could make the shard requirement inside the world? Kinda like how the keys in Ocarina of Time actually release big chains on the doors. Edit: Also what if there was a special mechanic when you roll out of a boost? Maybe a flying jump kick just like Captain Falcon in Smash. (At least I think he has one of those, I can't remember.)

[@firedragon04]

I've come up with an idea where you don't collect the shards at all, they're instead things you activate in the world that send a beam to the dungeon and it shows that you need 15 to unlock it and each time you activate a shard it blasts a beam to the dungeon and fills in a part of a thing which when full it unlocks the dungeon door. Not sure if people will like that more than the 'collecting shards' idea though.

[@AviusL]

I love these videos and I love how long they are! My only small critique would be that I think the building timelapses go way too fast. Like epilepsy-warning fast. And it makes them feel almost pointless because there's not enough time to see the see what's happening. Perhaps skip a little bit instead of showing us every single thing being put down? You could do a "Here I did this, and here this has been done"-kind of thing? In my opinion anyhow. I'd happily watch a slower timelapse that added 10 mins to the video. Lol. I'm really excited for this game and great job so far! Loving the frequent updates!

[@firedragon04]

Thanks, I'm trying the "Here is what I've been working on" and show then cut to "and here's an update on the progress" approach for Devlog 8 at the moment and it does help with the flow. I might still use the timelapses or parts of timelapses when I want to talk about specific features and things but I do think I want to reduce their use going forward.

[@westingtyler1]

This looks like it could be cooler than jet force gemini.

[@-C69-]

What is your background in games? How did you learn how to do this?

[@firedragon04]

I don't have any background in games, this is the first game I'm making. I learn from reading documentation, watching videos and experimenting in the engine. It is worth noting that I do work in the games industry, at a AAA development studio - but I do not work as a developer, I'm a graphic designer and video producer... so some of those skills do transfer into making Devlogs, designing characters and creating textures. But the actual gamedev side of things is fully self taught over the past couple of months.

[@ACouchpirate]

From a UX perspective, I think it would be good to make the process to- and through the first dungeon fairly linear, just so that the player is introduced to the major aspects of the game before giving the player free reigns.

[@firedragon04]

That’s not the approach I’m aiming for though, I very much want to give players free reign and not hold their hand. However, what I am doing is extending the crash site area where you start with a door puzzle where you need to collect a small local key of some sort to open it before being introduced to the large area, this means that players will understand that mechanic too. Then when they complete that and are out in the world, I’ll add some exposition and prompts about the first dungeon shard you discover and how they have a pull to the dungeon. That then gives the players choice, they can go to the dungeon and learn that they need 15 shards to open it OR they can go around and explore and then make it to the dungeon later. I may have a “current objective” style system come up when you first enter the world too to say go to the dungeon so then players have that in writing to begin with but also it can be in the menus to remind people too.

[@ACouchpirate]

@@firedragon04 Yeah I get that, giving the player the freedom to choose what to do is great, but I just wanted to emphasise that too much freedom can be detrimental for some players. They may end up only looking for shards and even if you do show that there's a dungeon somewhere they might just forget about that as they get caught up in shard chasing. While I realize my initial message seemed to suggest a very restrictive approach, I was trying to suggest a degree of restriction, rather than full on linear progression. I also realize I might have forgotten some of the details about how progression works in your game, if there's only one dungeon per level, then that essentially seals the deal, the level will simply be incomplete without finishing the dungeon which should serve as a constant reminder that there's a greater objective beyond the shards and I don't even think an objective tracker is necessary in that case. Are the shards meant to be cross-level or are the bound to the level? Also how many levels do you have access to at any one time? I apologize if I came across as wanting to alter your vision for the game, that's absolutely not my intent, I guess my intent is more focused on providing sideline support in the way of coaxing you into thinking about the macro design of the game, and if the questions I pose bring about no change at all, great, that means you know what you want and that's all that matters. I love watching your progress and look forward to watching the rest of your journey!

[@firedragon04]

@@ACouchpirate Not at all, I really appreciated your comment. UX is really important to me and I want that first user flow of getting used to the game to be great. In terms of some of your other questions to game's structure is linear in the sense that it's one planet (level/world) at a time, you can't go to the next one until you've got the shards, unlocked the dungeon and finished it. There is also only 1 dungeon per world and the shards are for that specific dungeon only. I do think having some sort of reminder, a map maybe? to point people back to the dungeon and remind them that is their overarching goal on every planet would be a good idea. I want people to explore, seek out lore, come across areas that result in the players coming to their own conclusions of what happened there - but also seek out collectibles, fight enemies, solve puzzles...etc all with the goal in mind that they want to get into that dungeon - with the core driving force behind that being unravelling more of the story and wanting to know more about what has happened.

[@coolguyiscool1234]

You should let players glide above the water, kinda like dash from the incredibles

[@firedragon04]

Yeah someone else said the same thing in the comments and I think that's a great idea. Instead of just falling into it, you hover over it when you're boosting. I'll implement this in the next few weeks and show it in Devlog 8 or 9 I think.

[@Mietchannel]

Really fun, i subbed. For the devlogs id rather you dont show a montage of you coding/ making blueprints in the background. Either dont show it or briefly explain it

[@AlynneTheFlorifant]

Maybe add a bit more ledges and surfaces around the crashsite, repetition is key to understanding game mechanics. Once can be considered a fluke or not important enough

[@firedragon04]

Yeah I show it off at the start of the Devlog next week but I expand that upper area with more surfaces to climb and add a visual "look" to climbable surfaces so that players always know what they can and can't climb.

[@Sunburst_No]

@FireDragon04 imagine if you could wield a firearm in one of his extra hand AND swing the melee weapon! Or something like that

[@JoeEnderman]

Very cool. What are thinking price-wise? Or are you not there yet?

[@firedragon04]

We're years away from any sort of public release, but I wouldn't price it very high.

[@SephirothinLEGO]

i think two shields overlapping is pretty silly and unnecessary, at least make them cover two shields worth of area. i think the 4 swords are even more silly, dual wielding is silly in real life and number of swords just doesnt equate to more damage, instead of 4 separate swords, how about a single 4-bladed ninja star? the huge canon idea IS a good idea in my opinion, but i think the cannon you showed is just way too small, make it a full on mobile turret or something, with big handles on top like a minigun and shoulder mounted and dual triggers, that's the kinda weapon that really makes use of having 4 arms in my opinion. you could also do something like dual wield shotguns, that would be cool. something else i think you could only do with 4 arms is using a shield and halberd(or scythe) at the same time, you just cant use a halberd 1-handed, you could have a halberd in the upper arms and small buckler shields in the lower arms

[@firedragon04]

I think there’s a ton of potential and ideas with four arms, some are good ideas some aren’t. And yeah making the canon larger and more weighty looking is in the plan it’s why I haven’t put this version in game yet. The reason I’m restricting the weapons and types of weapons is because I very much want you to feel under equipped and unprepared for this journey you go on.

[@robinHobin]

Sorry for all the comments but would you consider adding mini boosters on the hand to just to fit the animation, I know it’s not final but it could be explored a tiny bit

[@firedragon04]

Not really considering it, I just animated it like that to give the idea of speed, as if the arms are being pushed back by it. Kinda inspired by snowboarders and skiers when they're going really fast. I think I'm going to implement an animation blend space for boosting so that as you turn and rotate your arms move to the sides and react anyway to compensate for the shift at such high speeds.

[@firedragon04]

And don't worry about all the comments at all, I enjoy reading and replying :)

[@robinHobin]

@@firedragon04 that makes sense and sounds interesting, thanks for responding and thanks for the devlogs!

[@coolultra6017]

Are you planing on releasing a demo for this game in the near future?

[@firedragon04]

Not anytime soon, the game has only been in development for 6 weeks or so.

[@Waking_Luna]

2 swords and 2 guns